The worst week of Spanish rowing ended on Sunday in Trasona (Asturias) with only four of the six players on the team (Saúl Craviotto, Marcus Cooper, Carlos Arévalo, Rodrigo Germade). Carlos Arévalo won again in the K1-200 races ahead of Craviotto, Cooper and Girmad. Carlos Garrott and Christian Toro weren’t there. Both confirmed their presence on Friday at Mail To the union. On Saturday evening, however, they warned that they would not go to the Trasona racecourse. They are still on medical leave. Toro decides to reverse while in the car on his way to Trasona after speaking with his psychiatrist. The federation said in a statement, Friday, that after the tests on Sunday, it will prepare a report to select and inform the ownership of K4, one of the medal options at the Tokyo Games. The choice is now tinderbox.
The internal process for selecting the K1-200 and K4-500 to compete in the Tokyo Games began on Thursday the fourth and was supposed to be completed on the eleventh. And it continued in the midst of a storm caused by allegations of absurdity by Carlos Garot and former Federation president Juan Roman Mangas. Garrote confirms that in the first set of planned tours for the K4-500 his teammates were slowering with him on the boat to pull him off the games. The companions he refers to are Cravotto, Arevalo, and Toro; He himself chose them as one of three possible combinations of K4-500. When asked in his day who he wanted to argue with, he chose these three companions and refused to share a boat with Marcus Cooper. He said, “I don’t trust him.”
The other two boats consist of the Craviotto-Cooper-Arévalo-Toro and the Craviotto-Cooper-Arévalo-Germade (the boat that was the world runner-up in 2019 in Szeged, the last World Cup to be contested). Of the six planned runs (a round that wins two will be selected for competition in games) only four have been played. Garrote and Toro filed a medical release Tuesday and halted the selection process amid allegations of fraud.
On Sunday, the federation decided to compete behind closed doors to prevent another media circus like this week. The tests were suspended for 10 days, resumed for one day, and again suspended. There were 10 days there was a visit to the emergency room due to a nervous breakdown (which Garot had, according to Touro, who accompanied him to the hospital), medical leave, complaints to the Supreme Council of Sports (CSD), leakage of audios, writings and private lawsuits by the coach’s attorney Miguel Garcia, Sail Craviotto, national team captain and major-general at the Games Opening Ceremony that begins July 23.
On Thursday, 4 Carlos Arévalo won the two jogs slated to pick the rower that will compete in the K1-200. Spain has classified eight boats for four tests, but in these games, the International Olympic Committee slots them to six, so the federation had to make some in-house selections to make two flashbacks in the K1-200 and K4-.500 tests. The level of Spanish rowing is so high that they had to organize some of them Trials Like world powers (the United States in swimming or athletics, for example).
Arevalo, who was disqualified in 2016 from the Rio Games after losing the internal selections for the K2-200, won the two tests that started Thursday 4 ahead of Saúl Craviotto and the rest of his teammates (Carlos Garrott, Christian Toro – the speed specialists – Marcus Cuper and Rodrigo Germad -) Specialize in longer distances). The only option Garrote y Toro had, like the rest, to participate in the Tokyo Games was to take a place in the K4-500. The times the federation agreed not to go public like the eclectic ones in previous years – which rowing was not even aware of – seemed posted to the surprise of their coach, Miguel Garcia. The 3.8-second difference won by the K4-500 from Craviotto-Cooper-Arévalo-Germade in the first round of shots prompted the coach to call in the athletes to see what happened on the tests, if the cold was affected, water and track stiffness, muscle activation, etc. It is a type of meeting usually held to analyze time lags and professional circumstances; But this time it turned into a game of leaks and accusations of manipulation before it started.
Garrote hinted that the tests were rigged and that his teammates slowed him down on the boat to slow him down and keep him out of the games. On the same day that the print edition ended, he said that the internal selection process would be “fair and legal” and celebrated that day “everyone went home convinced that they had not left even a speck of the reserve forces.” Four days later (on Monday) he sent a WhatsApp message to some journalists saying that the selection process had been interfered with and tried to convince Toro that his colleagues were hurting them. If you go out tomorrow [el día que le tocaba la segunda tirada]You accept defeat, if you don’t come out, it has been proven that they robbed us. “
After canceling the tests on Tuesday, the federation decided that the tests should continue and that the starting boat be selected this week for the games, which have only four and a half months left. However, only one roll was made. Those of Craviotto-Cooper-Arévalo-Germade, which took the first test at the best time. They are the only ones, despite previous tensions, and despite spending nights without closing their eyes like the rest of the team, who appeared at the starting line. Garrote and Toro sent out medical victims who assured that they could not compete due to the stress condition and because they weren’t mentally or physically fit to perform. Meanwhile, the Fluvial Club of Vigo, to which Toro is affiliated, sent a report to the CSD with an analysis of testing times and a letter to the federation with a formal complaint about the selection process.
Lack of respect and threats
The Federation announced on Friday afternoon that on Sunday there will be two runs from the K1-200 and that after these tests it will prepare a report for the selection of the K4-500 given that the preparation for the games has been sufficiently interrupted. The K4-500 tests suspended due to Toro and Garrote’s medical losses will not be repeated. Tests can’t be done normally after a week’s buildup of tensions, tampering accusations, and leaks of private conversations recorded secretly in the corridors of Trasona Technology Center and in meetings with the technician. Even Craviotto’s lawyers intervened, warning Garrote in writing that it was a crime to publish these phonetics. Garrote’s goal, according to some in the national team, is specifically to prolong operations in order to challenge her. If the assembly of the new president, Pedro Pablo Barrios, does not approve the budgets on Sunday, everything may come to a halt again.
The tensions that have accompanied selectivity since the K4-500, led by Craviotto, won the global silver medal in Szeged, suddenly exploded on Monday, turning the team into a powder keg. Witnesses attending coach Miguel Garcia’s meetings with the six rowing, reported that they heard disrespect and threats.
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